Distribution of path durations in mobile ad-hoc networks—Palm’s Theorem to the rescue

We first study the distribution of path duration in multi-hop wireless networks. We show that as the number of hops along a path increases, the path duration distribution can be accurately approximated by an exponential distribution under a set of mild conditions, even when the link duration distributions are not identical. Then, we develop an approximate model for computing the distribution of link duration under a Random Waypoint (RWP) mobility model, and demonstrate that the path duration distribution converges to an exponential distribution with increasing number of hops. Simulation results obtained using ns-2 simulator are provided to validate the analysis.